When you’ve been celebrating a holiday for more than 1,000 years, the reasons why we observe that occasion can become obscured over time. St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday People have been celebrating in some form since the ninth or tenth century, and the celebrations seem to only get more popular as time go on. Saint Patrick Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland
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Since the 1980s, presidents have made proclamations to declare March “Women’s History Month.”[1] It’s a month to celebrate the contributions women have contributed American history. While there are more women who have contributed to history than can be covered in this article, we’re going to explore some of the local and national figures who have helped to shape American and women’s history. Alma Speed Fox
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You need to go back nearly two thousand years to trace the origins of Valentine’s Day. Celebrated each year on February 14th, Valentine’s Day is now a holiday filled with love, candy, and flowers. Many people believe the holiday is nothing more than a capitalist agenda invented by the greeting card and candy companies to get consumers to express their affections with gifts and cards.
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When children are young there’s no question about it. Santa is real and he is a fat jolly man that has one hard workday a year. The mystery of the Christmas season is magical and as parents we strive to make that gleam in our children’s eyes last forever. Inevitably, as a child grows up, they start to question everything. Including the ‘little white lies’
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Hanukkah is the Jewish festival of lights. Beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, the festival is observed for eight nights. While Hanukkah is now one of the most well-known Jewish celebrations in North America, it is considered a very minor holiday in the Jewish religion. Popular Pittsburgh has put together a brief history behind the holiday and how it came
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Most of the time when you see a product for sale, you only think about if you want it or not and don’t give much consideration as to how the product came into existence. Sometimes, like in the story I’m about to tell you, the most interesting and meaningful part is how a design was created. A Pittsburgh Artist Sue Douglas was a Pittsburgh artist.
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Dia de los Muertos—or Day of the Dead—is an often misunderstood holiday in the United States. Many believe this Mexican celebration is related to Halloween. While there are similarities, the two holidays originate from different sources. Our History of Halloween article, explains how Samhain—an ancient Celtic festival—evolved over thousands of years into the costumes and trick-or-treating we participate in today. Dia de los Muetos ,
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People have been celebrating Halloween—or some version of it—for more than 2,000 years. Today, many mistakenly associate this Americanized holiday with Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). However, that is not quite true. The roots of Halloween reach much farther back, to Western Europe B.C.E. The Original Halloween Halloween originates from the Celtic New Year festival, Samhain (sow-in). The Celts, who lived during
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What marks a new year? Across most of the Western world, parties leading up to midnight of January 1st celebrate a new calendar year. Often, the first day of school in September marks a new year. In the business world, fiscal years can begin and end at any time. For the Jewish people, Rosh Hashanah is the two-day religious festival that honors the Jewish New
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We all look forward to that long weekend at the beginning of September. The one that celebrates Labor Day… or is it Memorial Day? Labor Day is the first Monday in September; it is a federal holiday that is often celebrated with day-drinking and barbecues. For a lot of people, it’s really just a long weekend. But, do you know why we get this extra
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